HISTORIC RESOURCE BASELINE REPORT FOR THE CITY OF SALEM MCGILCHRIST STREET SE CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT MARION COUNTY, OREGON ODOT KEY #20739 Prepared for Otak Portland, Oregon July 19, 2018 REPORT NO. 3579 Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. 3510 NE 122nd Ave. ● Portland, OR ● 97230 Phone 503 761-6605 ● Fax 503 761-6620 HISTORIC RESOURCE BASELINE REPORT FOR THE CITY OF SALEM MCGILCHRIST STREET SE CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT MARION COUNTY, OREGON ODOT KEY #20739 PROJECT: Road Improvement Project TYPE: Historic Resource Survey LOCATION: Section 35, Township 7 South, Range 3 West, Willamette Meridian USGS QUAD: Salem West, OR, 7.5-minute, 1969 CITY: Salem COUNTY: Marion FINDINGS: ● 16 historic resources over 45 years in age were identified within the Area of Potential Effect ● Of the 16 identified resources, two are/may be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): the Union Pacific Railroad and the Blanchard & Lamen building. A 1941 culvert that carries the NRHP-determined railroad will be replaced, and it will be re-graded at its crossing with McGilchrist Street SE. These project improvements will not affect the railroad’s NRHP eligibility. Completion of Determination of Eligibility and Finding of Effect forms are recommended for the Blanchard & Lamen building to determine its significance and level of effect. These forms will be reviewed by ODOT. A finding of “No Historic Properties Adversely Affected” is recommended for historic resources. PREPARERS: Holly Borth, M.S., Judith A. Chapman, M.A., R.P.A, and Lucie Tisdale, M.A., R.P.A. INTRODUCTION Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW) has completed a historic resource baseline report for the proposed widening of McGilchrist Street SE between 12th Street SE and 25th Street SE in Salem, Marion County, Oregon (Figure 1; Photos 1 and 2). The proposed project will widen McGilchrist Street SE, realign 22nd Street SE at McGilchrist Street SE, and either add new traffic signals or modify existing signals. Urban Renewal tax increment revenues will fund the engineering services of project, and the City of Salem will seek additional funding for its construction from Federal grants through the Oregon Department of Transportatoin (ODOT). Due to this federal undertaking, all work was performed under the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, and its implementing regulations, 36 CFR Part 800. AINW staff who meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards in Architectural History and who are ODOT qualified as cultural resource consultants in Architectural History completed the work. Situated in southeast Salem, the project Area of Potential Effects (APE) is within an industrial area. The project APE includes the right-of-way of McGilchrist Street SE between Historic Resources Baseline Report July 19, 2018 McGilchrist Street SE Corridor Improvements Project AINW Report No. 3579 Marion County, Oregon -1- 25the Street SE and 12th Street SE. The project APE also includes portions of the rights-of- way of Pringle Road SE, 16th Street SE, 19th Street SE, 22nd Street SE, and 25th Street SE (Figures 2). AINW staff identified 16 historic resources within the project Area of Potential Effect (APE) (Table 1; Figure 2). Of the 16 identified resources, two are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): the Union Pacific Railroad, historically known as the Southern Pacific Railroad Main Line, Willsburg Junction to Eugene Branch (Figure 2, Map ID 8; Photo 2), and the Blanchard & Lamen building (Figure 2, Map ID 1). The railroad was determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in 2008 as the Southern Pacific Railroad Willamette Valley Main Line Historic Linear District (O’Brien 2006). The proposed project will remove a 1941 concrete box culvert (Figure 2, Map ID 9) that carries the historic railroad alignment on the south side of McGilchrist Street SE. In addition, the roadbed through which the railroad passes across McGilchrist Street SE will be modified and re-graded. These project improvements will not affect the alignment of the railroad, but will result in it being re-graded at its crossing of McGilchrist Street SE. This re-grading and culvert replacement are minor modifications to the design of the railroad, but will not detract from its historical appearance or diminish its historical integrity; the railroad will remain highly evocative of its significant associations with the economic development of the Willamette Valley as an NRHP-eligible linear historic district. The building attributed to the architectural firm Blanchard & Lamen (1970) and occupied by the firm in the 1970s may be eligible for listing in the NRHP. A Determination of Eligibility (DOE) form is recommended to determine if the building is NRHP eligible. If it is eligible, a Finding of Effect (FOE) form will be prepared. These forms will be reviewed by ODOT. With completion of the DOE/FOE process for the Blanchard & Lamen building, a finding of “No Historic Properties Adversely Affected” is recommended for historic resources for the City of Salem McGilchrist Street SE Corridor Improvements Project. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The McGilchrist Street SE Corridor Improvements project is located in southeast Salem, Marion County, Oregon. The APE extends a full one-mile stretch between 25th Street SE to the east and 12th Street SE to the west, and includes portions of Pringle Road SE, 16th Street SE, 19th Street Se, 22nd Street SE, and 25th Street SE (Figures 1 and 2). The road widening project will widen McGilchrist Street SE to a three-lane minor arterial standard, with additional intersection turning lanes and one additional eastbound travel land, east of 22nd Street SE. The project will also realign 22nd Street SE at McGilchrist Street SE, and require new or modified traffic signals at the intersections of McGilchrist Street SE with 12th Street SE, 13th Street SE, Pringle Road SE, 22nd Street SE, and 25th Street SE. The immediate vicinity of the project APE is primarily industrial, flanked by the Salem Municipal Airport to the east, man- made ponds to the north and south, and the Union Pacific Railroad to the west, interspersed with various commercial and industrial facilities and buildings. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The earliest historical maps of the project area indicate that while early settlers laid claim to parts of the land that would later become McGilchrist Street SE, the area did not experience any significant growth or development throughout much of the early- to mid- twentieth century when compared to areas of Salem further north (General Land Office [GLO] 1852, 1861). An 1852 GLO map of the project area reveals that the western portion of the APE was originally owned by “Ja Davidson” and a neighbor, “F.R. Smith” resided just southwest of Historic Resources Baseline Report July 19, 2018 McGilchrist Street SE Corridor Improvements Project AINW Report No. 3579 Marion County, Oregon -2- the western edge of the APE, but the remainder of the surrounding area of the APE appears undeveloped and uninhabited (Figure 3) (GLO 1852). James Orville Davidson was born in Baron County, Kentucky in 1792, moved to Burlington, Iowa in 1829, and settled in Salem, Oregon in 1847, after his son Albert had traveled the Oregon Trail and returned to praise his experiences in the Oregon Territory (Salem Pioneer Cemetery 2016a). Davidson is listed as a carpenter in 1850, likely his trade prior to emigrating to the Oregon Territory, but is later listed as a farmer in 1860 and 1870, the trade he maintained until his death in 1876 (Salem Pioneer Cemetery 2015a; U.S. Bureau of the Census [USBC] 1850, 1860, 1870). Fabritus Reynolds Smith emigrated to this location in 1846 from Rochester, New York, and has been noted as “[o]ne of the most successful pioneer farmers of Marion [C]ounty…” (Salem Pioneer Cemetery 2016b). Smith also served two terms in the Oregon Legislature and six years on the Salem Public Schools’ Board of Directors, all while living in the same location depicted on the 1852 GLO map (GLO 1852; Salem Pioneer Cemetery 2016b). By the time of the preparation of the 1861 GLO map of the project area, more settlers had arrived to this area, which was divided into many Donation Land Claims (DLC); a majority of the project APE is situated in the James Davidson DLC, with the eastern portion slightly extending into DLCs owned by Joseph E. Parrott to the south and Alvan F. Waller to the north (Figure 4) (GLO 1861). Alvan F. Waller was a man of many firsts in the region: he built the first Protestant church in Oregon City, which may also have been the first Protestant church west of the Rocky Mountains; additionally, he built the first church in Salem and the first brick building on the Willamette University campus (Flora and Hochspeier 1996). Reverend Joseph E. Parrott was born in Missouri in 1821, and emigrated to Oregon in 1848. He lived in Salem at the time of the 1861 GLO map; although he was residing in Yamhill County by the time of his death in 1872, he does not appear in any census records in Salem (Bancroft 1886; USBC 1850, 1860, 1870). The project area during the late-nineteenth century was home to several significant figures from the settlement era of the Salem community, but no historic resources related to these people or events were identified during the historic resource survey. The Union Pacific Railroad alignment that crosses the project APE approximately 200 feet east of the intersection of McGilchrist Street SE with Pringle Road SE is the earliest constructed historic resource that was identified during the survey. This railroad first appears on a 1915 topographic map of the area (U.S. Geological Survey [USGS] 1915).